1 online resource (xii, 217 pages)

In Becoming Asian American, Nazli Kibria draws upon extensive interviews she conducted with second-generation Chinese and Korean Americans in Boston and Los Angeles who came of age during the 1980s and 1990s to explore the dynamics of race, identity, and adaptation within these communities. Moving beyond the frameworks created to study other racial minorities and ethnic whites, she examines the various strategies used by members of this group to define themselves as both Asian and American. In her discussions on such topics as childhood, interaction with non-Asian Americans, college, work, and the problems of intermarriage and child-raising, Kibria finds wide discrepancies between the experiences of Asian Americans and those described in studies of other ethnic groups. While these differences help to explain the unusually successful degree of social integration and acceptance into mainstream American society enjoyed by this "model minority," it is an achievement that Kibria's interviewees admit they can never take for granted. Instead, they report that maintaining this acceptance "requires constant effort on their part." Kibria suggests further developments may resolve this situation - especially the emergence of a new kind of pan-Asian American identity that would complement the Chinese or Korean American identity rather than replace it

Includes bibliographical references (pages 207-213) and index

Asian Americans and the puzzle of new immigrant integration -- Growing up Chinese and American, Korean and American -- The everyday consequences of being Asian: ethnic options and ethnic binds -- College and Asian American identity -- The model minority at work -- Ethnic futures: children and intermarriage -- Becoming Asian American

Electronic reproduction. [Place of publication not identified] : HathiTrust Digital Library

Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002

digitized 2010

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